Texarkana Memorial Hospital, Inc. v. Firth

746 S.W.2d 494, 1988 Tex. App. LEXIS 56, 1988 WL 3369
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 20, 1988
Docket9540
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 746 S.W.2d 494 (Texarkana Memorial Hospital, Inc. v. Firth) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Texarkana Memorial Hospital, Inc. v. Firth, 746 S.W.2d 494, 1988 Tex. App. LEXIS 56, 1988 WL 3369 (Tex. Ct. App. 1988).

Opinions

GRANT, Justice.

This is an action for damages resulting from the death of Mrs. Margaret Wagner while she was a patient in Texarkana Memorial Hospital (hereinafter referred to as the hospital). Mrs. Wagner died when she jumped through a window in her room on the fourth floor of the hospital. Her estate and survivors (hereinafter referred to as appellees) sued the hospital alleging negligence and gross negligence in its care of Mrs. Wagner. The jury found in favor of the appellees on all liability issues and awarded the appellees $467,985.82 in compensatory damages and $500,000 in exemplary damages. The exemplary damage award was based on a finding of gross negligence against the hospital.

On appeal, the hospital does not complain of the ordinary negligence and compensatory damage findings, but contends that there is insufficient evidence or no evidence to support the gross negligence and exemplary damage findings. The hospital contends alternatively that the trial court erred in failing to order a remittitur of the award of exemplary damages, because this award was due to passion, bias or prejudice.

The injury, being wrongful death, is one in which exemplary damages are permitted by our State Constitution when gross negligence is shown. Tex.Const. art. XVI, § 26. Ordinary negligence is lifted to the level of gross negligence by the defendant’s mental attitude. This attitude is a state of mind amounting to conscious indifference to the rights, welfare and safety of others and can be inferred from all of the acts, omissions and circumstances. Burk Royalty Co. v. Walls, 616 S.W.2d 911 (Tex.1981). Conscious indifference relates to the defendant’s mental attitude and “denotes a decision, in the face of an impending harm to another party, to not care about the consequences of the act which may ultimately lead to that harm.” Williams v. Steves Industries, Inc., 699 S.W.2d 570 (Tex.1985). To establish gross negligence, there must be evidence which makes it fair to conclude that the defendant had decided to ignore the rights of the injured party, even in light of the probable and threatened injury. A plaintiff is not required to produce direct evidence of the defendant’s subjective state of mind, but the mental state may be inferred when the evidence demonstrates that under all the circumstances a reasonable, prudent person would have realized that his conduct created an extreme degree of risk to the safety of others. Williams v. Steves Industries, Inc., supra.

In deciding if there is any evidence to support a finding of gross negligence, we must consider only the evidence and inferences which tend to support the jury’s finding and disregard all contrary evidence and inferences. Williams v. Steves Industries, Inc., supra. We must view the evidence [496]*496that tends to support the finding in its most favorable light. Garza v. Alviar, 395 S.W.2d 821, 823 (Tex.1965). Insufficient evidence points require that we consider and weigh all the evidence. In re King’s Estate, 150 Tex. 662, 244 S.W.2d 660 (1951). With these principles in mind, we consider the evidence in the record before us.

Wagner, a thirty-three year old woman, was brought to the hospital emergency room at about 1:45 a.m. on September 13, 1983. She was admitted by Dr. Hood, the emergency room physician, whose initial assessment was that Wagner had been nervous and upset for two months, was depressed and possibly suicidal, was unable to sleep and was hallucinating. The patient was given medication, and Dr. King, the hospital’s staff physician for psychiatry, was called. King determined that Wagner was psychotic and requested that she be placed in the hospital’s closed unit. He gave routine orders for laboratory work and prescribed a major tranquilizer (thorazine) and medication to counter its side effects (cogentin). Wagner was removed from the hospital emergency room approximately an hour and a half after her admission and was taken to room 414 in the open psychiatric unit, because the closed unit was fully occupied.

The closed unit is for dangerously ill patients and is secure at all times. The open unit is similar to any regular hospital unit where the patients are free to come and go and the doors are not locked. The windows in the open unit cannot be raised more than four inches, but they are not protectively screened. In the closed unit, the windows are protected by screens designed to prevent patient “elopement.”

Wagner on two occasions threatened to jump out of the hospital room window. Wagner also told the nurse on duty that she felt someone was trying to kill her. Shortly thereafter, Wagner put on her clothes and attempted to leave the hospital. Dr. King ordered the dosage of Wagner’s medication to be increased so that a “chemical straitjacket” effect would be achieved. He also ordered that Wagner’s medication be injected so that it would take effect more rapidly. Dr. King again asked a nurse to determine whether Wagner could be moved to the closed unit, but there was no room and no doctor with a closed-unit patient would agree to move a patient out of the closed unit to make room for Wagner. Dr. King increased Wagner’s medication and also gave her intermuscular na-vane. He ordered that medication be given to Wagner at thirty-minute intervals until she went to sleep and that she be given an additional dose of navane at 9:30 p.m.

About 6:00 p.m., the nurse on duty in the open unit, Patricia Jewell, requested additional help because of the situation. Jewell’s shift was to end at 7:00 p.m. The hospital supervisor on duty, Sam Haddock, at first refused to send any additional help. Then she informed him, “I have a patient who wants to jump out the window, seriously.” He then replied that he would see what he could do. When Wagner was given her 6:05 p.m. medication, she acted afraid and stated that her husband was hurting her. Some forty minutes later she was “talking off the wall” and appeared wide awake. Additional medication was given by LVN (licensed vocational nurse) Henry at 7:00 p.m. At about 7:10, Haddock “floated” RN (registered nurse) Sterling to the open unit as additional help. Jewell advised Sterling that the patient needed someone with her constantly. Shortly after 7:30 p.m., the increased medication began to take effect, and Wagner’s two adolescent daughters, who had been staying with her, went home.

At 8:30 p.m., Wagner was sitting up in bed appearing apprehensive. She was then given a backrub by Nurse Sterling. About 11:00 p.m., Sterling called Haddock, the supervisor, advising him that Wagner was asleep and sedated and that all was quiet on the floor, and requesting permission to go home. Haddock granted permission, but did not assign a replacement. Sterling testified that Wagner was quiet and sedated when she left, but that she did not know when Wagner might awaken. From that time until she jumped from the hospital [497]*497window, Wagner was left in the open unit and was tended to in routine fashion by those present in that unit: Nurse’s Aide Joyce McGary and LVN Alexander. Neither of these nurses had substantial experience on the psychiatric ward.

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Texarkana Memorial Hospital, Inc. v. Firth
746 S.W.2d 494 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1988)

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746 S.W.2d 494, 1988 Tex. App. LEXIS 56, 1988 WL 3369, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/texarkana-memorial-hospital-inc-v-firth-texapp-1988.